Welcome to the Salon Owner’s Podcast, Phorest FM Episode 31. Co-hosted by Killian Vigna and Zoé Bélisle-Springer, this show is a mix of interviews with industry thought-leaders, roundups of our most recent salon owners marketing tips & tricks, all the latest in and around Phorest and what upcoming webinars you can join. Phorest FM is produced every Monday morning for your enjoyment with a cup of coffee on your day off.

Phorest FM Episode 31

This episode is a monthly round-up of the most popular blog articles from June. Some topics covered include the Salon Owners’ Summit 2018, Phorest Salon Software’s new 30Days2Grow initiative, and why you as a salon owner should have a potential staff members’ references call you, instead of the other way around during the hiring process.

Audio

Transcript

Killian Vigna: This week’s episode is a round-up of June’s most popular posts from the Phorest Salon Software blog.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And as always, we top off the show with our upcoming Phorest Academy webinars.

Killian Vigna: This podcast is produced every Monday morning for your enjoyment with a cup of coffee on your day off. Now, let’s get into the show.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Hello, hello.

Killian Vigna: Alright Zoe, welcome back. You were ditching us there for the last two weeks.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Ah yes, I was just you know, laying down on the beach in Portugal, it was very nice, very, very warm.

Killian Vigna: And that was great because while you were away, we got two weeks of a heatwave and now that you’re back, it’s back to raining again.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I know, and it was a heatwave in Portugal too, though. It was like up to 41 degrees. Not to complain, but it was very hot.

Killian Vigna: 41?

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: That would actually kill me. Like, we hit 25 degrees here and I just couldn’t function. I was get … start getting grouchy.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Right, so what do we have on our agenda today?

Killian Vigna: So we’ve got the-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Monthly roundup.

Killian Vigna: Monthly roundup, the best blogs of June.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes.

Killian Vigna: Or the most popular.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes, exactly. So, made this list. The first one is Hiring Great Salon Staff: Why You Shouldn’t Call a Reference, and that was written by the Grow team’s manager-

Killian Vigna: Yeah, so that’s Barry Quinn and this was an interesting one because we actually went through this-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh yeah.

Killian Vigna: -stage during the recruitment-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: -process and I remember first hearing the request… So essentially, when we were being interviewed for Phorest, and this is how you should do your interviewing-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: We actually had to get our references to ring Phorest.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah exactly, and I know for me it was kind of awkward because I’m originally from Montreal and I had to ring people in Montreal being like, “Can you call Ireland for this new job I’m trying to get?”

Killian Vigna: Yeah. No, it really stands for you though because-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh yeah.

Killian Vigna: Like the fact that your past employer… It’s easy to like, kind of, I suppose leave a company, go to another company and lose contact completely with your last crowd.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Killian Vigna: We’re busy like we don’t have… I’m going to sound so like miserable here, but like you don’t have the time to keep all your connections, so with this one, the fact that you’re going back to your employer and asking to leave a reference, if they’re willing to say yes, like that nearly straight away is a good start for you.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh yeah and definitely, because when you think about it, right, if you’re the one to ring your candidate’s reference, you’re probably just going to buzz in in the middle of the day. They might not be completely aware of what’s going on, and they’ll just kind of be, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah he was a good employee, or she was a good employee and that’s it, but they don’t really put thought into it.

Killian Vigna: Yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Whereas, if they have to ring, then you know it’s their choice, you know.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, it’s like you said like, I suppose… I’m a salon owner, and I want to call the reference for a potential staff member. It’s almost like I’m intruding on that person’s day because they’re not expecting the call. They might have a timeline of, oh I might call you between these two hours or something, but they’re still not as prepared as someone who is going to have to call you in.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And you’ll get a much more genuine answer-

Killian Vigna: Oh yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And review from that former employer.

Killian Vigna: Yeah because by getting them to call you in, they’ve now set time aside to actually go through this proper. Where if I’m going to be calling you, it’s like I said, you’re dropping into their day, it’s going to be quick, and it’s almost going to feel like they’re just trying to get you off the phone really quick.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: Which is fair enough because we’re all busy, but yeah, no that’s a really good one. That’s how we do the recruiting here and it really stands to you and also to the person you’re going to hire-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh yeah.

Killian Vigna: If you’re going to have another salon rave about them, to you, so.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah. So that’s one thing to check out on the Phorest blog. Hiring great salon staff, why you shouldn’t call a reference. Our second most popular blog of the month was-

Killian Vigna: You can kind of like guess what these ones are-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: So for anyone that’s tuned in the last few weeks.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: So, we launched this new initiative. It’s going to start on July 1st, it’s called 30 Days 2 Grow. It’s a salon challenge, you probably heard about it. If you haven’t, basically what it is, is that we’re trying to help salons grow their businesses and clients’ average bills through a series of daily tasks and challenges, and it’ll be like one task a day for 30 days, and that will help you grow your business in the long term as well.

Killian Vigna: Yeah so basically, anyone that’s sick of this discounting culture, get on board the challenge. We’re trying to work together basically to remove-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: Discounting your services the whole time. It’s not fair, no one should have to do it, so yeah, get on board the challenges as well. 30 short challenges a day.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes, well no. 30 short challenges over the month, one a day.

Killian Vigna: 30 challenges a day, beat that! But yeah, one challenge, every day for 30 days and they’re really short-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh they’re really short-

Killian Vigna: Quick challenges.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: They’re easy to apply into like a daily basis, and we were very mindful of the busiest days in salons as well when we designed which challenges should go on which days, so we’re not going to, like you know, if you have to sit down at your computer, it’s not going to be necessarily on a Saturday when you’re most busy, you know.

Killian Vigna: Yeah and we took into account days that you could be off, like a Sunday or Monday, so the task might be a little different and stuff.

Killian Vigna: But, I mean like, we feel like we’re pushing it but like we’re looking back on it and we haven’t actually done that much promotion on it, so the fact over 1,000 people have joined up on it is brilliant and we actually saw, so Sinead from PR and events, there is a little Facebook group-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah-

Killian Vigna: -going on.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: So if you want to join in, we can link that in the episode’s notes.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, there was a woman from Surrey asking if anyone else was in Surrey doing it, turns out there were three or four salons in her area, which is good because it means everyone in that town is on board with this plan.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: So, don’t get left behind. Get onboard, because like we said, it’s only going to work if you’re all together. But yeah, they’re planning on meeting up and everything to go through the challenge.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: So sign up, get your team on board, and challenge another salon.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh, and we’ll be hosting a Facebook live Q&A session on Wednesday, 28th of June, so two days before the challenge actually starts, well three days, and that Q&A, Facebook live, will be at 5 pm UK, Ireland time or 12 noon for US eastern time, so join in on that and we’ll take all your questions, we’ll walk you through, you know, give you examples of the tasks and so on so forth, so-

Killian Vigna: Yeah, we’ll give you a sneak peek of it as well.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: Kind of what you can expect from each task.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: So, moving on and this one, I mean it’s been going on. The photos are… like they’re just coming in-

Killian Vigna: Yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Day by day.

Killian Vigna: Our marketing manager just… Connor just uploaded a load of snapshots from Instagram was it, or Pinterest?

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: And it was just award after award after award.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: So, Phorest Client Experience Award 2017. We can’t say it enough. Congratulations to all of you who have gotten the award this year.

Killian Vigna: You’ve earned it.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: You’ve earned it.

Killian Vigna: Your clients love you.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Your clients love you, yes. So, that was one of the most popular blogs as well this month. You’ll probably be seeing those stickers around, and if you’re wondering how to turn that on, the feature if you’re using Phorest Salon software so you can be eligible to get the award next year, that’s all in that blog. We show you exactly how to do that, so encourage you to check that out and-

Killian Vigna: And for anyone that’s not using Phorest, just, it’s always nice to always send an SMS out with a link looking for a review-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah.

Killian Vigna: Because it’s good follow-up and it’s good for keeping you on your toes as well.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Exactly.

Killian Vigna: Because you can only develop as much as your feedback, so.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I have nothing else to say to that.

Killian Vigna: Listen to this guy, because if you feel overwhelmed, how is he doing it, like-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, so he’s our second speaker at the summit and we’ll have loads of more announcements coming up as well, so don’t miss out and definitely don’t miss out on the early bird tickets, so they are selling out quite fast. If you want any more information on the summit itself, you can go check the website, so salonownersummit.com and yeah, we’re looking forward to see you there.

Killian Vigna: We actually are going to be announcing the third speaker in next week, I believe-

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Ooh.

Killian Vigna: So, it’s going to be either next week or the week after, I’m not going to tell you when, but just keep an eye on your emails because yeah, we will be announcing and this one is a big one.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, so listen. This monthly roundup basically was a lot of events and things like that, but it has been quite an exciting month so maybe less of the blogs for this roundup, but, you know, there’s still loads of content there. If you’re looking for inspiration or any kind of marketing help and stuff like that, even management help, there’s loads of articles that went out in June and you can check out on the Phorest blog, so don’t hesitate to go check that out.

And as for the Phorest Academy webinars, as usual, we have our retail masterclass on July 3rd and that’s at 3 pm, UK, Ireland time or 10 am US eastern time. It only lasts an hour. It’s all about how to create a retail culture within your salon, so I mean, it does really tie into the 30 Days 2 Grow. I suggest, strongly recommend you check that in, tune in on the day. It’s usually loads of people coming in and asking questions, I answer to all your questions through email within the next day and stuff so you know, check that out and we also, last announcement here. Loads of announcements today. We also have a new contest running, so every month, we’ve started last month but every month we’re going forward, we’re going to launch a new giveaway contest and this month, the contest runs from June 22nd to July 6th. July 6th at 5 pm Dublin time. So, if you want to sign up for that, that’s on the blog. It’s also on our Facebook page. You can win a salon print, we’ll have three winners that’ll be drawn through all the people who signed up and entered the competition, and you can choose from six prints to get a little fun thing to décor your salon, so there you go.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, that’ll be cool. So, just as always guys, we’re trying to get more experts and special guests on the show. So, give us your feedback, let us know who you want on the show so you can either leave us feedback on iTunes or you can contact us, even reach out to us on Twitter @thephorestword or @killianvigna, so yeah if you’ve got any questions, who do you want to see on the show, any feedback, hit us up.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And we do this show for you ultimately, we want to tap into what your main interests are, so wish you a wonderful week and we’ll catch you next Monday with a special episode on the 30 Days 2 Grow.